November and December Goals + CROWN

Am I the only one who thinks time has flown by exceptionally fast this year? It’s also been a long while since I wrote an update, so here’s the spill on both life and writing.

Writing-wise, 2022 has been a whirlwind. DECEIVED released April 2022 (I’m still flabbergasted that I’m an author). Then IRON entered the world on September 30. It’s reception was more enthusiastic than I anticipated, as I was unsure about the story and if it was even likable. And now Shattered Reflection is slated for December 21st with CROWN (The Redwyn Chronicles 0.5) possibly being released in December as well.

My head is spinning.

I also redesigned my author website. Not what I expected or even wanted at first, but I like it.

Some unanticipated problems arose as well. If you’ve followed my author newsletter, you know I’ve had issues with my laptop. My sister intimidated it into working again for a short while, by my elation dissipated when, a few weeks ago, said laptop ate KEY without warning. Yep. The accursed device totally consumed the entire document. While 8,000 words isn’t technically a ton to lose, it really set me back and hit like a punch to the chest. I suppose I should be grateful I’ve only ever lost two books in my writing career thus far (the first time was my first book where I lost 75,000 words. Don’t know where it went or what happened, but it was devastating).

The bad news: I had to rewrite KEY.

The good news: I now have a new laptop. Brand-spankin’-new. I’m still getting used to it and deciding what my overall opinion is (there are definitely some positives and negatives), but at least I no longer must worry about losing documents and stories. I was able to find one that didn’t come with a touchscreen (boo-hiss on those things; why are they necessary for a laptop? My dad thinks I’m nuts for disliking them), for which I’m happy, and the keys aren’t so far apart that my stubby, short fingers can’t reach them. It’s also extremely light compared to my old one. I lifted it to relocate to my preferred writing spot and ended up almost throwing it because it’s just so light.

The bad news: It doesn’t have a DVD player, which I’m not happy about. Apparently that’s not a thing anymore? Am I just old-school and like DVD players to be included in laptops? No more watching The Hobbit and Beyond the Mask when I’m sick, I suppose.

As I mentioned above, Shattered Reflection releases in December. I love this story so much. The betas seemed to like it too. If you’re interested in ARC reading SR1, you can fill out this form.

More good news: I finished CROWN‘s rough-draft!

Just this morning, in fact.

I wanted CROWN to be 20,000 words.

It’s not.

It’s 31,713 words.

Still, aside from APTB, it is the shortest story I have ever written.

CROWN specs:

• Written in about three weeks
• Is the prequel to IRON.
• Is Calvin and Isadora’s story.
• Is a Goose Girl retelling.
• Features some unexpected characters.
• Is on Goodreads, so don’t forget to add it to your TBR (or just go there to see the cover).

This makes CROWN my ninth completed work.

CROWN is currently with betas. Those poor, poor ladies. If you beta’d SR1 and IRON and thought them rough, they were polished and perfected compared to CROWN.

NOVEMBER and DECEMBER WRITING GOALS:

November:

• Polish SR1 and prep it for publication.
• If I have time, finish KEY. (Can I just say that Denton has stolen my heart? Poor, sweet boy.) KEY releases March 28, 2023. There won’t be a blog tour, but if you’d like to help with the cover reveal, you can go here. And if you’ve not added it to Goodreads, you can do so here.
• Black Friday. There’ll be some epic sales going on for my books and MPED.

I know November is typically the month where we try getting 50,000 words, but 1) I am a super slow writer so that’s never happened and 2) SR1 is officially an epic in length. Fun for reading, not so for editing.

December:

• Polish CROWN if the betas decide it’s good enough to be published (like I said, they deserve a lot for what they’re enduring).
• Survive the Broken Mirrors tour SR1 is involved in.
• Work on SR2 ! I’m having some inspiration come bit by bit, and I have the first 300 words written (*sobs* It’s heartbreaking), so I’m excited to get going. I do promise there will be a lot of humor. We’ll see more of Marcus, two-point-five characters from SR1, and one-point-five new characters I think readers will like.

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What are your November and December writing plans? Have you ever lost a document? What are you reading? Have you received snow yet? We have.

Do you need an accountability partner? If so, I think most of you know my email, and if you don’t, there’s the contact button. 😉

Most importantly, what are your thoughts on pumpkin spice flavoring? Not real pumpkin, but the false stuff like the syrups and such? I won’t touch it.

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